MORE than 30 gay couples in Coventry and Warwickshire are preparing to take advantage of a new law and get married for Christmas.

The couples have posted notices with local registrars that they intend to marry in December when the Civil Partnership Act begins.

The new law means homosexual couples will be able to form civil part-nerships, giving them the same tax rights as heterosexual married couples.

The act comes into force on December 5 but a 15-day waiting period means that December 21 is the first day gay couples can tie the knot.

But already couples have registered to marry in Coventry, Rugby, Warwick, Leamington, Stratford, Nuneaton and Bedworth.

And staff at the Coventry Register Office, in Manor House Drive in the city centre, are preparing for more.

Susan Worrall, the city?s superintendent registrar, said: ?We have already had a few calls in about the new civil partnership arrangements and I would imagine that nearer the time, we should be getting more.

?In Coventry, we have a lovely setting for civil part-nership ceremonies and I know that once people realise what we have to offer, we could be very busy during the first few months of this act going live.

?At the moment, cohabiting couples do not receive the same tax breaks or entitlements that married couples enjoy, including access to a partner?s pension.

?Civil partnerships will give homosexual couples property and inheritance rights for the first time.?

In Warwickshire 18 applications have been made in the Warwick, Stratford and Leamington area, eight in the Rugby region and a further eight in the Nuneaton, Bedworth and Atherstone areas.

Some form of legallyrecognised civil partner-ship already exists in nine other EU countries as well as in some states in America and Australia.

Department of Trade and Industry officials have estimated that there will be more than 42,000 civil partner-ships in the UK by 2050.

The new act does not use the term ?gay marriage?. However, it closely follows a marriage contract and partners will also be able to dis-solve the agreement in the form of a divorce.